"Those tactics... I mean, they must have been smoking weed in the team car!" - Geraint Thomas stunned by Dutch approach to 2024 European Championship road race
CyclingSaturday, 21 September 2024 at 14:58
Last weekend in Limburg, the men's 2024 European Championship road race was held. Pre-race, the big favourites were the Belgian duo Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen and in the end, it was the former who took the title in a frantic bunch sprint.
On the latest episode of their Watts Occurring podcast, INEOS Grenadiers duo Luke Rowe and Geraint Thomas reflected on the race, with a few curious tactics sticking out to the Welsh pair. "There were two things from this race," Thomas begins, targeting the Dutch approach first. "I didn't see it all, but I heard that Mathieu van der Poel just wanted to create chaos and attack, Danny van Poppel, who is one of the best leadout men in the world, ends up in the break and they've got Olav Kooij who can win. Those tactics... I mean, they must have been smoking weed in the team car! Unbelievable tactics."
That wasn't all that caught the eye of the former Tour de France winner and Giro d'Italia runner-up however. "Belgium sprinted with two guys. Did Merlier get a leadout?" Thomas questions. "Yeah, he had a leadout of Bert van Lerberghe, who is with him at Quick-Step. Then Philipsen had a leadout from some Alpecin dude. Two trains," comes the answer from Rowe. "That's nuts."
Whilst Thomas had been left confused by the tactics of the Dutch and the Belgians, Rowe meanwhile, had a bone to pick with the Italian contingent in Limburg. "They took control, Affini was doing these big dog pulls and it was incredible. But then, they tried to lead it out. They had a massive numerical advantage and they were riding on huge roads on the way in. Just come late. Come late with speed," the long time INEOS road captain explains. "I mean they almost pulled it off. Consonni got a little boxed in, he was last leadout man. But I mean, if you're a director... It's obvious. Although they didn't have connection with the director, it's worth adding that. No race radios in the Euros."
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Cmon G, You aren't know for brilliant tactics either
And all that provocative talk before finishing off with the small detail of no radio coms, desperate to please a very restricted audience it seems. If Cyclinguptodate wouldn’t report on this podcast so often almost nobody would hear of it.
By the way, what’s the best G has ever done in a road championship with no com, anyone? As far as I remember, absolutely nothing in almost 2 decades of riding.
Not true - G won the 2014 Commonwealth Games Road Race, no radios.
Oh, well you’d have to be a Commonwealther to know that I guess, flies under everyone else’s radar, even though World Media is very Anglo biased (having said that, I bet the Commonwealth’s sports department is happy the US isn’t a member).
So one not very contested race ages ago in a very long career, I stand corrected.
I would still point out that it was a circuit where riders still have access to some sideline info so not riding completely in the dark.
Also (and feel free to correct me again), I get the distinct feeling that the Commonwealth road cycling race is not run as a team event like the EC and WC are nowadays so it stands to reason that there’s little advantage to radios and no reliance on team strategy which would actually disqualify this race from this specific argument.
Like the European Continental Championships no one really cares about them.
Yes actually, and in my opinion, you can do away with continental football champs too, club and worlds is more than enough.